There is some sort of expectation that the top finishers of the National Chess Championship would be guaranteed a place on the Guyana team for the spectacular biennial 2018 Chess Olympiad in September.

February 11, 2018

Countries and governments vary vastly in size and ‘weight’… That does not mean that the biggest, meanest countries always get their way: their huge resources may not be easy to apply on the scale that counts.

One of the things that first attracted me to chess is that it brings you into contact with intelligent, civilized people – men of the stature of Garry Kasparov, the former world champion, who was my part-time coach.

Guyana’s chess for 2017 has both been invigorating and disappointing.
On the positive side, the Berbice Chess Association was established, an overture was made to the Georgetown Prison, Guyana was represented at an important World Chess Federation (FIDE) overseas meeting, the Berbice Inter-Schools Chess Championship was held and Guyana won the inaugural Caribbean Chess Cup.

December 10, 2017

The eight participants for the 2018 Candidates Chess Tournament have been decided. Six were chosen previously based on a number of transparent criteria, and last week the final two were selected from the Grand Prix at Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Chess is a catalyst for social development in communities that are underserved. We need to give these alternative pathways to the youngsters in our communities so that they know there are other ways to success.” – Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness, at the launch of the inaugural Jamaican International Chess Festival earlier this month.

The most accurate chess thinkers worldwide, the most prolific grandmasters in the world, 128 of them, began the 2017 FIDE World Cup with solid hopes of taking one of the two qualifying spots for next year’s Candidates Tournament.

You explain deep mysteries, because even the dark is light to you. – Daniel: 2:22
It was 45 years ago, that American Bobby Fischer, challenged Boris Spassky of the then Soviet Union, for the world chess championship title; today that story is still being repeated, analyzed and debated.

In his largely entertaining and insightful book, Grandmasters of Chess Pulitzer prize winner and music critic/chess correspondent for the New York Times, Harold C Schonberg, tells us about the origin of the word grandmaster.

The game (chess) has always been thought of as a relatively pure measure of intellect, and the presence of a Soviet atop the world rankings signalled to the empire’s subjects, no matter how poor and starving they may have been, that they possessed some sort of superiority – Jack Dickey, in an article titled “Can Garry Kasparov stay a move ahead of Vladimir Putin?” Sports Illustrated, July 2017.

At the conclusion of the 8th round of the brutal Altibox Norway Chess Tournament, categorized as the strongest-ever in the world based on the elite rank of its participants, world chess champion Magnus Carlsen sits in the penultimate position following his lone victory over his former challenger for the title, Sergey Karjakin.

‘There is a local feeling connected with this occasion, too strong to be resisted… ‘ – Daniel Webster (1782-1852), American lawyer and orator during an address commemorating the 200th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims.

With the sounds of everyday reality ringing familiarly in his ears outside its walls, President of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) James Bond paid a visit to the Camp Street Prison on Wednesday, supporting the idea of concretizing a chess club for inmates.